BitSnark

So Josh Barnett going to the UFC? Yeah, that’s not going to happen now as Barnett’s manager, one Leland LaBarre, has communicated that the ‘Warmaster‘ has officially declined the newest contractual offer by the promotion.

Frustrated? Yep, I sure am; a veritable slew of entertaining matchups awaits the ‘Warmaster’ in the UFC’s HW division.

Fucking hell Josh.

According to LaBarre, money isn’t the issue; instead citing some “outlying issues” as the impuetus for the contract refusal, “We agreed on guaranteed compensation. In fact, we never even countered. We accepted their original offer.  However, there are some outlying issues — one in particular — that as of this point we were unable to agree on.”

As you might very well guess, the house that Dana White help build had no comment on the situation, but with any luck, we’ll see them around the negotiating table again.

As far as what those issues are however, its anybody’s guess.  Issues with the testing policy?  Not being able to supplement his violent vocation with shows where he just pretends to beat the ever-loving shit out of people? Who knows.

What we do know however is that it’ll be a while until we see the catch-as-catch-can wrestling submission specialist returns to the Octagon.  Barnett, whose record stands at a commendable 32-6, had his last dance in the UFC nearly eleven years ago where on March 22nd, 2002, he leathered the shit out of Randy Couture en route to a TKO victory to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion, only to have the title stripped off of him for pissing hot for banned substances after the bout.

His last fight was against the hilariously over-matched Nandor Guelmino during Strikeforce‘s swansong show in January, ending that particular confrontation in the first round with a suitably nasty arm and triangle choke.

As recently as last week, Dana White was optimistic that he could bring Barnett over to the promotion.  So hopefully they’ll continue their chinwags and their chequebook scratching as the ‘Warmaster’ would match up pretty well with the majority of the HW division and would provide entertaining fights with the likes of Frank Mir, Roy Nelson and recently deposed division king Junior Dos Santos for starters.

What do you folks reckon; would you like to see Barnett doing his thing in the UFC?